Oh hey, it’s been a while since I’ve updated. We spent most of last week traveling to Nevada to visit Robin’s great-grandma Elsie and The Anti-Sara. At the same time Sam’s parents were making their own way across California, visiting with various family members, so when we got back to San Francisco they were here to see us!

Robin handled the trip really well. He did get thoroughly sick of his car seat by the end of things, but he just loves being made a fuss of by rooms full of people. He also took really well to the Phillips family dogs, and they were very patient with him.

We ate in a lot of restaurants while we were traveling, and discovered that Robin is willing to be perfectly quiet for the whole meal so long as he gets to eat bits off our plates. As a result, he got to sample a wide range of solid foods, including scrambled eggs, rice, avocado, oranges (he looooves oranges), gravy, caramelized onions, tomatoes (both raw and processed into spaghetti sauce), soft bread, and other things I am forgetting now. He is a big fan. Especially of oranges.

Now we get a couple of weeks to unwind at home before taking another trip, this time by plane, to Fayetteville. There’s a whole bevy of uncles and an aunt as well that Robin has yet to meet, and I think he will be delighted. Now that Sam’s back at work and it’s just me and Robin during the day, he seems to be looking around, a bit fussy, as if to say: Where are all those nice people who loved me so much? Where did they go? I want them back!

Robin has started giving us kisses! Well, sort of. He kind of lunges toward us with his mouth wide open, leaving a big smear of baby drool where he manages to connect. It’s possible that he’s actually trying to eat us.

I turned on the TV while I was nursing Robin, and they were showing live pictures of my street taken from a news helicopter! Turned out the torch runners had been diverted to a route literally two blocks from my apartment. So I thought, what the hey, let’s go see some history.

And we did! Robin naturally didn’t know what all the excitement was about but he smiled at everybody, and I took some pictures. There was hardly anybody else there. These runners passed about five feet from where I was standing on the sidewalk. But as far as I could tell the torch wasn’t actually burning—I think the flame had already been handed off. Oh well.

I’m proud of Gav for being sneaky and pulling this thing off. China’s human rights record is atrocious and Sam and I have been known to donate money to pro-Tibet causes, but assaulting Olympic torchbearers is just wrong. I’m glad San Francisco managed to host the torch successfully, and I’m glad I was lucky enough to (kind of) see it.

Robin and I both have a cold right now—nothing major, we’re both just a little stuffed-up and under the weather. When he’s home Sam is doing a great job of fetching me kleenex and tea, with the understanding that I will do the same for him when he inevitably catches this bug.